Tech expert: Anifah’s cyber security warnings valid and reasonable

 

Former foreign affairs minister Anifah Aman’s warnings of “widespread cyber warfare and misinformation tactics” are valid and worth looking into, according to a tech expert.

Tecforte’s Business Development director Aziz Hussein (above) said that it was crucial for Malaysia to deploy a cyber-defence capability to protect the “sovereignty” and independence in its security operations.

“All critical sectors within a country, such as financial sector, telecommunications, government, energy, defence, health, among others are vulnerable when there is a cyberwar.

“When attacked, all these critical sectors must have the capability to defend against malicious cyberattacks,” Aziz said in a statement.

He said it was almost certain modern warfare would include some form of cyberattack.

“All these critical sectors are now driven by technology.

“A cyber warfare can easily cause chaos and significant disruptions on all the critical sectors in the country, not to mention financial and reputational losses even in times of peace,” he added.

Former foreign affairs minister Anifah Aman

Anifah’s warning

Previously, Anifah issued a sobering warning that if Malaysia does not check regular encroachments into its territorial waters, it could one day find itself in the same boat as Ukraine, which is facing a Russian invasion.

He also warned against cyber warfare by Russia, calling on all parties involved in local telecommunications and digital systems to enhance the infrastructure of security in facing any possible cyber-attacks or misinformation campaigns.

Aziz said Anifah’s concerns were reasonable, as operations are running independently from each other.

He said to ensure a critical sector can remain resilient against cyber threats, the sector’s lead and members need to know and understand the evolving risks and to prioritise and coordinate the response.

In the financial sector, Bank Negara is the sector lead, while members within the sector are the banks and insurance companies.

“What they need is a single security management platform single platform similar to Bank Negara’s Fintip that will boost the exchange of threat intelligence between sector members as well as their sector lead in order to leverage on group strength to provide for collective defence,” he said.

Tecforte is an MSC status company based out of Selangor and with more than 15 years of experience in cyber security research and development, implementation and deployment in the country. - Mkini